Perspectives Inaugural Issue (Winter 2013)

PERSPECTIVES • WINTER/SPRING 2013 27 Sandra Winkler, Ph.D., OTR/L , assistant professor and faculty re- searcher, is the first named inventor on United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent No. 8244655 titled “Force-Sensing Or- thotic Electric Device Controller” issued August 14, 2012. The de- vice’s purpose is to provide independent mobility for individuals who are candidates for power mobility but whose impairments pre- vent them from operating commercial wheelchair controls. Most existing interfaces to power wheelchairs require either upper- extremity control to use traditional proportional joysticks or discrete interfaces or head control such as head pointer or chin joystick. As a result, use of standard interface strategies and interface products is ruled out for this population. Our concept removes the control sensor (the joystick) from the wheelchair frame and attaches it to the body as a wearable device. In 2012, Dr. Winkler received a two- year R21 award (#7R21HD053526-02) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to establish proof of concept for the device. Dr. Winkler and her research team—Michael Rosen, Ph.D., research associate professor, Matt Christensen, research associate from the University of Vermont, and Sergio Romero, Ph.D., research assistant professor from the University of Florida—named the device SPOOCI (Self-Referenced Personal Orthotic Omni-Purpose Control Interface) and pronounced spooky as an intentional reference to the near magical sight of an individual driving a power wheelchair with- out any visible externally referenced control interface. Dr. Winkler wanted to create a device that was appealing to wear and minimized stigmatizing features. For example, SPOOCI sensors could be placed inside a shoe. A sub- ject in Dr. Winkler’s research study would squeeze the right bulb to turn right, the left bulb to turn left, both bulbs to go straight, and re- lease the bulbs to stop. Once the customization is complete, the bulbs will be placed inside a Hello Kitty plush toy. Another subject used a different SPOOCI program: This subject, who has functional use of only the right side of the body, applied force to one bulb to turn right and released the bulb to turn left and squeezed/released the other bulb to go straight and to stop. The next phase of this work will develop an online decision guide and selection menu from which clinicians can customize SPOOCI interfaces for individual clients. OT • FORT LAUDERDALE New Hope for Mobility Issues RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT CONTINUED...